Matt Barber turns tables on ‘homofascists’ who put bakery out of business

Sweet Cakes by Melissa owners Melissa and Aaron Klein — born-again Christians — were forced to shut down their storefront business in Gresham, Oregon after a lesbian couple sued them for refusing to make a cake for their “wedding.” Said Aaron “I don’t want to help somebody celebrate a commitment to a lifetime of sin.”

First published by WND.com, September 6, 2013

By J. Matt Barber

At least Oregon is applying its anti-discrimination laws evenhandedly. Interesting story out of Gresham: The Oregonian is reporting that Bruce Bottoms – a homosexual baker and owner of “Cakes By Cupcakes” – has been charged with anti-Christian discrimination by the Oregon Ministry of Human Rights (OMHR). Mr. Bottoms and his partner, Lance Limpkowski, recently declined to bake a cake for the notoriously anti-”gay” Westboro Baptist Church (WBC). As a result, they’ve been forced to shut down their business.

It seems that, in another tired attempt to be provocative, representatives from the attention-starved WBC demanded that Bottoms and Limpkowski bake a cake for a Westboro fundraiser with the group’s trademark slogan, “God Hates Fags,” emblazed in rainbow frosting across the top. Mr. Bottoms, who reportedly moonlights as a part-time blogger for the homosexual activist “Human Rights Campaign,” was understandably appalled. He refused.

“Look, I’ll serve anybody, Christian or otherwise,” said Bottoms. “I just refuse to bake a cake that endorses an ideology that I find obscene. If Westboro came in and asked me to bake a birthday cake with the words ‘Happy 120th, Papa Freddy,’ it’d be my pleasure,” he said. “I didn’t decline to bake the cake because the customers defined themselves as ‘Christian’; I refused because nobody should be forced to lend their talents to endorse – whether directly or indirectly – a message or event that they find repugnant.”

Tolerance Enforcement Commissioner Brad Avakian disagreed: “We are committed to a fair and thorough investigation to determine whether there’s substantial evidence of unlawful discrimination,” he told the Oregonian. “The goal is never to shut down a business. The goal is to rehabilitate. For those who do violate the law, we want them to learn from that experience and have a good, successful business in Oregon. Everybody is entitled to their own beliefs, but that doesn’t mean that folks have the right to discriminate,” he said.

Meanwhile, churches and Christian groups across America organized a boycott of Cakes By Cupcakes, picketing the business and threatening to target other businesses that associated with Bottoms and Limpkowski. The two men have additionally reported multiple death threats, with one Presbyterian preacher leaving a voicemail: “Die bigots! You anti-Christian haters need to keep your Christophobia to yourselves!” he said.

Just kidding.

Sort of.

Although the “Cakes By Cupcakes” incident didn’t actually happen, something quite similar is happening across America. It’s a photo negative of the above scenario, but it’s equally absurd. Homosexual activists and “progressive” government officials are targeting Christian business owners – true Christians, not hateful Wesboro-types – for real anti-Christian discrimination.

‘Gay’-Manufactured “Hate”: This note was posted by Sweet Cakes owners Aaron and Melissa Klein on their Facebook page September 6, 2013. Click on graphic to enlarge

And they’re doing it in the name of “non-discrimination.”

Todd Starnes of Fox News reports: “A family-owned Christian bakery, under investigation for refusing to bake a wedding cake for a lesbian couple, has been forced to close its doors after a vicious boycott by militant homosexual activists.

“Sweet Cakes By Melissa posted a message on its Facebook page alerting customers that their Gresham, Ore., retail store would be shut down after months of harassment from pro-gay marriage forces.

“‘Better is a poor man who walks in integrity than a rich man who is crooked in his ways,’ read a posting from Proverbs on the bakery’s Facebook page.”

“It’s a sad day for Christian business owners, and it’s a sad day for the First Amendment,” owner Aaron Klein told Starnes. “The LGBT attacks are the reason we are shutting down the shop. They have killed our business through mob tactics.”

“Last January, Aaron and Melissa Klein made national headlines when they refused to bake a wedding cake for a lesbian couple.

“Klein tells me he has nothing against homosexuals,” reports Starnes, “but because of their religious faith, the family simply cannot take part in gay wedding events.

“‘I believe marriage is between a man and a woman,’ he said. ‘I don’t want to help somebody celebrate a commitment to a lifetime of sin.’”

Below is adapted from my response to William May of Catholics for the Common Good, who told Mercator.net (an excellent resource) that the same-sex “marriage” debate is “not about homosexuality at all.” May is to be commended for his work defending marriage, but I’m afraid he hurts the larger pro-family cause by denying the obvious: that the LGBT push to mainstream homosexuality is behind the aggressive push to radically redefine marriage. Over the years I have observed that the “guilt” is pretty much on one side of this debate — ironically, the side that testifies to absolute truth. Homosexual activists have skillfully manipulated that misplaced guilt to lobby successfully for homosexuals in the military, pro-LGBT programs in schools, “special rights” (so-called nondiscrimination) laws, and other dubious agendas. May’s full interview with Mercator is reprinted below my comment. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH

Rarely have I read something as ridiculous as William May’s comment that the national debate over same-sex “marriage” is “not about homosexuality at all.” The ONLY reason we are radically redefining marriage is the aggressive (and successful) advocacy of the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) movement — aided increasingly by sympathetic liberals and libertarians (and activist judges). It is not only disingenuous to assert otherwise — it is simply untrue. Do you want to know why we are losing this debate? Because people like May, perhaps well-meaning, are riddled with guilt for doing the right thing. Homosexual activists (uh-oh, I uttered the “H-word”) selfishly aim to redefine “marriage” for their MAIN purpose: winning (even forcing via the State) approval of their aberrant lifestyle.

I can think of no other cultural debate in which such obvious truths are so often denied out of a politically correct fear of being labeled a bigot. (And we all know the most virulent bigots are anti-Christian homosexual activists.) Get over it. We don’t hate people but we oppose homosexual conduct as immoral, unhealthy, unnatural and –the best news of all, as proved by the existence of many ex-“gays” — changeable. (I know dozens of former homosexuals.) Funny how those who are on the side of attaching the noble institution of marriage to a sin — see the Catholic Church’s teachings on homosexuality — do not shy away from asserting that this is all about GAY rights.

PS. Faithful and compassionate Christians must NEVER encourage or sanction homosexual relationships, which are — another hard truth here — essentially the domestication of disordered and sinful behavior, hence destructive to the souls of those involved. — Peter LaBarbera, 9-6-13

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Click on the above graphic to go to a printable PDF of Scott Lively’s “Fact Sheet on Uganda.”

Click on the link below or the graphic at right for a PDF “Fact Sheet on Uganda and Homosexuality,” by pro-family advocate Scott Lively — who has been sued by the Ugandan homosexual group SMUG (Sexual Minorities Uganda) — working with the far-left American group Center for Constitutional Rights — for “Crimes Against Humanity” for his Christian advocacy in that African nation. We’ve also reprinted the Fact Sheet below (after the jump).

Scott Lively – Uganda Fact Sheet–PDF link 

Scott Lively

Few people in the world have been lied about and demonized by homosexual activists as much as Lively. This Fact Sheet is merely the beginning of what must become a comprehensive effort to set the record straight. Clearly, the nefarious goal the CCR and its leftist/LGBT comrades in its legal harassment of Lively is to intimidate pro-family advocates everywhere from speaking out against the aggressive homosexual-bisexual-transgender agenda. In the Left’s playbook, the ends justify the means — but even for the Hard Left, charging a decent, Christian man like Scott Lively with “Crimes Against Humanity” — for his public advocacy — is beyond outrageous. In fact, it is evil and profoundly un-American. And yet, Clinton-nominated federal District Judge Michael Ponsor has allowed the SMUG lawsuit to proceed. We will be following this case closely. Please pray for Scott Lively. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH

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Here’s a wonderful video by Christian pastor Michael Glatze, who overcame the shallow “gay” lifestyle to become whole in Jesus Christ. (He lived a decade in the homosexual life, and at one time was a rising “gay” activist.) I encourage you to watch the entire 20-minute video. But if you are impatient, about halfway through the video, Glatze states, “Homosexuality is not something you need to do…It is not necessary for you to become gay.” Here is a website on the “Romans Road” explanation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. To reach Michael, write michaeleglatze@gmail.com. Watch this on YouTube HERE. You can also listen to AFTAH’s (two-part) radio interview with Glatze in 2010 HERE.

Sandy Rios is one of the few reliable socially conservative “Contributors” at FOX News. For a printable PDF flier for AFTAH’s Nov. 16 banquet, click HERE.

We at AFTAH are very excited to have Chicago’s longtime and beloved Christian talk show host, Sandy Rios, as the keynote speaker at our annual Americans For Truth dinner-banquet Saturday, Nov. 16.  Please save the date. [For a printable PDF flier for the banquet, click HERE.]

As always, it will be hosted by our good friends at Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights, Illinois.  We are again making it very affordable to attend: just $20 per person in advance or $25 at the door, so please help us by telling your network of family and friends about it.  Better yet, buy a table of 10 for just $200!

WHO: Sandy Rios [www.SandyRios.com], Host, “Sandy Rios in the Morning,” AFR Talk (American Family Association’s talk radio network); FOX News Contributor; longtime Christian talk show host on Chicago’s WYLL Radio; vice president of Family-Pac Federal; and former president of Concerned Women for America;

WHAT: Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH) annual fundraising dinner-banquet.

WHEN: Saturday, Nov. 16; doors open at 5:30 PM. Dinner served at 6:30

WHERE: Christian Liberty Academy, 502 W Euclid Ave., Arlington Heights, Illinois 60004 (2 miles east of IL-53 N.; take the East Euclid Ave. exit).

COST: $20/person in advance (to be paid online or received by regular mail by Nov. 14, 2013); $25 at the door. Sponsor a table of 10 for only $200!  PAY ONLINE: at www.aftah.com/donate/ [check the “Individual Banquet Registration” box on the Donate Page Form];

REGULAR MAIL: send your check for $20/person to AFTAH, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522 (put “Banquet” in memo line).

RSVP/More Information: Write Brad Wallace at connops@yahoo.com. Call us at 312-324-3787 or e-mail him at americansfortruth@gmail.com.

To go to a printable PDF flier of this event, click on this link: AFTAH Banquet PDF Flier_2013-Sandy-Rios-FINAL

By Rev. Dr. Clenard H. Childress, Jr.

Donnie McClurkin overcame the pull of homosexuality after being molested as an 8-year-old boy by his pedophile uncle: “The seed of perversion was planted through that molestation,” he said. Now McClurkin is the victim of “gay” activist “bullies” who fear his powerful testimony, says Rev. Childress. See McClurkin’s story at http://ex-gaytruth.com/encyclopedia/donnie-mcclurkin/.

Nationwide (August 26, 2013) Reprinted from BlackNews.com — The hijacking of the Civil Rights Movement by homosexual activists took a quantum leap with the barring of Donnie McClurkin from the Martin Luther King Concert celebration. Such a strategic strike by the LBGT Lobby could not have happened without the compliance of the normal House Negroes of the Democrat Party, who also profit from the plight of African-Americans. This has become typical of Democrat administrations. African-Americans must take complete notice of the fact that the voice of the Black Community was completely disregarded for a few disgruntled homosexual activists. Mayor Vincent Gray, of Washington, D.C., due to pressure from the Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, Transgender lobby, requested internationally known gospel singer, and Senior Pastor of Perfecting Faith Church, of Freeport, New York, be banned from performing. Mayor Gray, and undoubtedly the White House, all agreed.

It is a sad day for the church, especially for the Black Church, for let us realize, this move was executed after careful consideration of the possible repercussions. Their assessment? The Black Church will remain complacent, will more than likely abandon their brother, and go away, with little objection. Such assessments can be made due to the Black Church, and most of its members’ ungodly alliance with the Democrat Party, who now dictates to them who can perform at concerts, and who cannot. Please for one minute don’t think that Mayor Gray didn’t receive a call from the oval office affirming the request of the LGBT insisting that Donnie McClurkin not perform. I might also add, we should not think for a second that Barack Obama, who will be speaking at the Lincoln Memorial next Wednesday, could not have intervened on the behalf of Donnie McClurkin, but refused. The president could have mirrored Martin Luther King’s response to the insistence of the gay agenda being in the platform, by Bayard Rustin [a homosexual] in 1963, which resulted in Rustin leaving the movement. When Martin L. King spoke at the Lincoln Memorial, he stood strong to his moral convictions; the President doesn’t have the same moral convictions as Martin, and in comparison, they are miles apart, and thus you have the expulsion of Donnie McClurkin from the performance. It is clear to one and all, the homosexual agenda trumps the Black Church in urban communities. Regina Griggs of PFOX (Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays) made a very valid and crucial observation stating:

“Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy cited public ‘animus’ against gays as a reason to strike down part of the Defense of Marriage Act, yet gay rights groups promote hatred against former homosexuals,” said Griggs. “As shown with Donnie McClurkin, ex-gays are the most powerless and discriminated against minority in America today. At the behest of gay activists, the black mayor of a major urban city removed an African-American from a civil rights event despite the protests of local black ministers. Respecting the lives of people like Donnie, who have decided to change, and including them in the conversation, is part of building a tolerant society.”

The Machiavellian tactics of the homosexual activists is clearly seen here. They speak tolerance and acceptance, yet they attack, bully, and punish those with whom they disagree.

Chris Christie sided with homosexual activism over parental rights in signing into a law a bill banning reparative therapy for minors in New Jersey.

AFTAH News Release; contact: Peter LaBarbera: 312-324-3787; americansfortruth@gmail.com

August 21, 2013

CHICAGO—Peter LaBarbera, President of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH.org), said today that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie succumbed to homosexual activist propaganda and myths in signing into law a bill that bans professional counselors in the Garden State “from attempting to change a minor’s sexual orientation.”

LaBarbera made the following points regarding Republican Christie siding with the “Big Gay Government” agenda by banning parents from helping their children overcome the destructive pull of homosexuality:

1) Christie cited the pro-“gay” American Psychological Association in claiming that efforts to change sexual orientation “can pose critical health risks” to children. But he strangely did not mention the existence of successful, happy former homosexuals. Nor did he acknowledge the widely-available data pointing to the myriad health risks associated with homosexual behavior itself – such as the rising HIV risk among “young men who have sex with men.”

2) Pro-family advocates call the New Jersey law – like a similar California law – a “Jerry Sandusky” law because it could ban parents from specifically seeking reparative therapy for their child even if the child was molested by a homosexual pedophile (the law’s language is ambiguous on this point [see comments following this blog post by pro-homosexual “evangelical” professor Warren Throckmorton]. Sadly, many “gay” men like CNN’s Don Lemon and MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts do not acknowledge the causative link between their molestation as boys by homosexual predators and their subsequent embrace of a deviant “gay” identity.

3) Lies and calculated LGBT disinformation have muddled the debate and confused the public over the issue of homosexuality and the potential for ex-“gay” change. Falsehoods often are repeated by the liberal media, such as AP’s report of the Christie bill-signing, which stated: “Lawmakers heard horror stories from some during hearings on the ban, including Brielle Goldani of Toms River, who testified she underwent electric shocks and was given drugs to induce vomiting after being sent to an Ohio camp at age 14 to become straight.” (Associated Press report, Politico, Aug. 20)

The problem is Goldani was lying, as was confirmed by Christopher Doyle, himself a successful ex-“gay” who counsels people to overcome unwanted homosexual desires. Doyle tried to track down the “Ohio camp” but discovered that it never existed. Needless to say, Doyle’s clarification did not garner near the attention of Goldani’s horrific yet spurious testimonial tale.

4) Christie is misinformed in claiming that homosexuals are “born gay”: efforts to confirm “born gay” junk science have failed — e.g., the much-heralded studies by homosexual-activist researchers Dean Hamer (1993) and Simon LeVay (1992) could not be replicated. (See www.mygenes.co.nz; Hamer, author of a media-touted “gay gene” study, now makes gay-advocacy documentaries.) Nevertheless, the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA) cunningly includes the word “innate” in its “Stylebook” definition of “sexual orientation,” as revealed in the author’s report on pro-homosexual media bias for America’s Survival. (The NLGJA also collaborates with homosexual gadfly Wayne Besen, hater of “ex-gays” and creator of the “Pray the Gay Away” polemical smear.) Homosexual activists and liberals often fall back on the convenient “born gay” myth as a way of avoiding the reality that homosexuality – primarily environmentally influenced — is about immoral, unhealthy, and changeable behavior.

5) Christie’s statement (relying on his “born gay” belief) that homosexuality is not a sin is not only a repudiation of his own Catholic teachings on homosexuality. It is also a craven capitulation to the secular political correctness of this age that celebrates homosexuality and extreme gender confusion as “civil rights.”

Unfair, Unbalanced and Afraid:

Fox News’ Growing Pro-Homosexual Bias and the National Gay & Lesbian Journalists Association

Fox News’ Megyn Kelly: new hero to the “Gay” Lobby. Here she is shown appearing at “gay journalists” fundraiser. To read a PDF version of this report, go HERE. Photo: WireImage.

This is a Special Report published by America’s Survival, Inc.; www.usasurvival.org; 443-964-8208 (Cliff Kincaid, president), and authored by AFTAH President Peter LaBarbera, in advance of ASI ‘s August 20, 2013 conference, “The Crisis in American Journalism and the Conservative Response.” Following is an HTML version of the ASI report, or see the PDF version here: Fox_Report-PDF. The Endnotes contain live web links. Click on photos and graphics to enlarge.

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Unfair, Unbalanced, and Afraid: Fox News’ Growing Pro-Homosexual Bias and the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association

By Peter LaBarbera, exclusive to America’s Survival

Twitter: @PeterLaBarbera; for a printable PDF version of this report, click HERE

News Corp., the parent company of Fox News and Business Channels, has heavily funded the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA), a pro-homosexual advocacy organization in newsrooms. Here a News Corp endorsement ad appears in the program for the 2009 NLGJA “LGBT Media Summit.”

It is difficult to overstate the impact of wide-scale liberal media bias in the advancement of the pro-homosexual and pro-“transgender” revolution in American society. In the last two decades, media imbalance (and de facto censorship) on the issue has morphed into frequent media celebration of homosexuality — thus leaving citizens starved for impartial and accurate information on this critical topic. “Journalism” has become pro-homosexual propaganda, with many media stories appearing as if they were written by LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) activists. By effectively joining the “gay” activists’ crusade, major media outlets – and even “conservative” Fox News — have contributed greatly to the growing pro-homosexual political correctness in U.S. culture. This in turn has fueled even more aggressive militancy among pro-LGBT groups and bloggers who are lobbying the media to block social conservatives from TV appearances, etc., on the grounds that such anti-homosexual-agenda voices are “hate groups.” The result is the further degradation of journalism that has contributed to Republican and conservative ambivalence on issues like same-sex “marriage” and allowing open homosexuals in the military. So bad is the media groupthink on homosexuality that even self-described “conservatives” like Glen Beck and Tucker Carlson have either endorsed or made positive soundings on “gay marriage,” or gone silent on LGBT issues.¹

The degree to which the “mainstream” media have become promoters of the homosexual- and transgender activist movements is astonishing. Below is a graphic from a recent Pew Research Center study analyzing media coverage surrounding the U.S. Supreme Court’s hearing in March 2013 of two cases related to homosexual “marriage.” Pew labeled a story as “supportive” of homosexual “marriage” if it included at least twice as many pro-“gay marriage” statements as opposing statements – and vice versa for stories labeled “opposing”²:

Note the extreme one-sided bias in favor of homosexuality-based “marriage” in most of the categories – and the finding that all media (including Fox News) except conservative talk radio were heaving biased toward “gay marriage.”

With pro-“gay” attitudes dominating newsrooms, few journalists seem willing to pursue stories that might offend America’s powerful and well-funded homosexual activist lobby.³ This would include investigating:

• how escalating “gay power” represented by pro-LGBT “nondiscrimination” laws subject even very young children to inappropriate pro-homosexual “lessons” in school, thus undermining both children’s innocence and parental rights⁴;
• the growing HIV crisis among “gay youth” (a study of young “men who had sex with men” in 21 cities found that one in 10 tested positive for HIV in 2008);⁵ and
• how pro-homosexual laws including legalized “civil unions” and homosexual “marriage” negate Americans’ cherished religious and First Amendment liberties.

On the latter point, there is now a large and growing body of evidence that pro-homosexual laws and corporate “diversity” policies oppress Americans’ freedom of conscience to oppose homosexualism and live out their religious and moral beliefs, including the once universally-held Western idea rooted in the Judeo-Christian teachings that marriage is between one man and one woman (see below).

Schieffer gets a lesson on the growing ‘gay’ tyranny

CBS’ Bob Schieffer was unaware that Christians across the nation are being prosecuted by the state for living according to the dictates of their faith by refusing to participate – through their own businesses — in immoral homosexual “marriages.”

A recent appearance by Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” exposed how ill-informed the major media are when it comes to the threat that government-backed “gay marriage” (and pro-homosexual “sexual orientation”) laws pose to religious liberty. Perkins writes that with the Supreme Court’s de facto invalidation of California’s Proposition 8 amendment defining marriage as one-man, one-woman [emphasis added]:

“…people are about to experience (if they haven’t already) the profound loss of liberty that accompanies this march down the same-sex “wedding” aisle. … “Face the Nation” host Bob Schieffer — like so many Americans — was surprised to hear that business owners (and wedding vendors in particular) are being persecuted, and in some cases prosecuted, for refusing to participate in a same-sex “marriage” ceremony. .. “I must say this is under my radar,” Bob told me. “I haven’t — I haven’t heard this.” And he’s not alone.”[6]

Perkins writes that “the media isn’t covering the stories of these victims — not because they don’t exist — but because liberals recognize their potential to swing the debate.” See this footnote for the examples he provided of moral-minded Americans whose freedom has been jeopardized by their opposition to homosexual “marriage” and State-enforced “gay rights.”[7]

This report for America’s Survival, Inc., documents the rampant and often egregious media bias in favor of the homosexual-bisexual-transgender activist agenda. It puts special focus on the growing (and sometimes radical) pro-homosexual bias of Fox News personalities like Megyn Kelly and Bernie Goldberg. Why concentrate on Fox? Because Fox News has inordinate influence with conservative Americans and with the Republican Party — which is also retrenching its opposition to “gay rights.” And because Fox holds itself to a high standard of being “Fair and Balanced” – i.e., not sharing the notorious bias of the dominant liberal media.

This report will also investigate the role of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA; motto: “We’re Here, We’re Queer, We’re on Deadline”) in distorting and molding news coverage on homosexuality- and transgender-related issues. Like other major media, Fox News through its parent company, News Corp., is a long-time funder of the NLGJA.